Cross-media recommendations across film, TV, games, books & music — picked by taste.
Heidi is a story about belonging — a child who thrives in wide-open mountain air but gets uprooted into a wealthy, confined urban world, and the pull she feels back to the grandfather, friend, and landscape that shaped her. At its heart it's about the healing power of unconditional affection, the tension between wild freedom and social obligation, and the quiet way a warm-hearted person can soften even the most guarded soul. Readers drawn to it tend to want that same combination: tenderness, natural beauty, and a child navigating a world that doesn't quite fit.
Heidi is a work of children's fiction published between 1880 and 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning and Heidi: How She Used What She Learned by Friedrich Andreas Perthes of Gotha. It is a novel about the events in the life of a five-year-old girl in her paternal grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. It was written as a book "for children and those who love children".
Film
Heidi
An orphan taken from her Alpine grandfather to a wealthy Frankfurt household — the same displacement and longing at the story's core.
Film
Heidi
A young orphan finds life and freedom in the Alps before being separated from the mountain world she loves.
Film
Heidi
Heidi's sweetness draws a reclusive grandfather back into the world — warmth softening isolation, same as the book.
Film
Heidi in the Mountains
Japanese anime adaptation of the same Swiss novel, following Heidi's Alpine wandering and learning.
Film
Heidi: Girl of the Alps: Heidi and Clara
Compilation film drawn from the second half of the animated series Heidi: Girl of the Alps.
Film
The Story of Heidi
A five-year-old orphan arrives at her formidable grandfather's Alpine home — faithful retelling of the same origin.
Series
Heidi
Heidi discovers freedom in mountain landscapes before being forced into town as a companion — the book's two-world arc.
Series
Heidi: Girl of the Alps
An orphan's kindness gradually opens her bitter grandfather's heart in the Alps — the book's emotional centre, animated.
Series
Heidi
A plucky orphan sent to her mountain grandfather finds wonder around every corner — the spirit of the book distilled.
Series
Story of the Alps: My Annette
A Swiss girl in a poor family faces suffering and hardship — Alpine setting and children navigating difficult circumstances.
Series
Le chalet
A group shares a winter mountain chalet, with close relationships shifting when an outsider joins — Alpine community under pressure.
Series
Tanto Amor
Love straining to survive against all obstacles within a wealthy family — emotion and wealth in tension.
Game
Allumette
A young orphan girl endures tragedy yet grasps at hope — the same orphan-resilience and emotional warmth.
Game
Over the Alps
A secret journey across 1939 Switzerland — Alpine landscape and hidden histories echo Heidi's Swiss mountain world.
Game
Wonderful Everyday Down the Rabbit-Hole
A beloved visual novel with multiple routes, winner of the 2010 Moe Game Awards Best Story prize.
Book
Heidi
A Swiss orphan leaves her grandfather's mountain home to care for an invalid girl in the city.
Book
Heidi's children
A sequel continuing Heidi's life into adulthood, including the Alm-Uncle's kept secret and a child who comes to live with her.
Book
Swiss secrets
Nancy Drew on a continental adventure through Switzerland — glamour and danger in the Swiss Alps.
Book
Der Mondscheindrache
A child suddenly pulled into a fantastical adventure beyond ordinary life — wonder erupting into a quiet everyday world.
Book
Vaffelhjarte
Two inventive nine-year-olds share an inseparable friendship in a small place — childhood closeness and mischief, warmly told.
Book
The saucepan journey
An enterprising family with seven children works together through hardship — warmth, cooperation, and children at the centre.
The 2015 film adaptation closely follows the same arc — orphan displaced from the Alps to a Frankfurt household — and is a natural next step. The 1974 animated series Heidi: Girl of the Alps is also a beloved, full-length take on the story.
Heidi's Children picks up where the original leaves off, following Heidi into adulthood, the birth of her twins, and the resolution of the Alm-Uncle's long-kept secret.
The story captures something universal: a child who belongs somewhere wild and free, forced into a world that doesn't fit, and the longing to return. Its warmth and the way Heidi's affection quietly changes everyone around her have kept it resonant for readers of all ages.